12-year-old girl snags potential world-record red snapper

Thursday

Jul 31, 2014 at 11:02 AMJul 31, 2014 at 10:55 PM

It may take about two months to know if Taylor Shenk's catch is a world record.

By Godwin Kellygodwin.kelly@news-jrnl.com

Not only was it the catch of a lifetime, but Taylor Shenk’s 26-pound red snapper may land the Orange City middle school student in the world-record book.The 12-year-old angler was offshore fishing on July 25 with her father, Corey Shenk, her brother Kodey and his friend Kyler Lawrence, aboard the family’s 27-foot boat called In-Limbo Too, when she felt her line get bumped at 100 feet.When she hooked the fish, the fight was on.“I felt like it was going to drag me into the water,” Taylor said. After a 15-minute battle, which Taylor said “felt like an hour,” the snapper was netted by her father. He immediately knew the fish could be an International Game Fish Association world record.The current red snapper record, set eight years ago, for Junior Female (11 to 16 years old) is 24 pounds.Corey Shenk signed the family up for IGFA membership about three months ago when he realized Taylor could set a world record after years of deep-sea fishing with his daughter.“Fishing is the best sport I’ve ever done,” said Taylor, a 7th-grader who will begin classes at River Springs Middle School later this month. “I really love it. I wish we could go every weekend. We go a lot. I wish we could go more.”Taylor, who was using a 6-inch croaker for bait, hooked the fish at around 11 a.m. at a spot southeast of Ponce Inlet. “At first she couldn’t budge the fish, so much that she thought she might be caught on the bottom, but she kept the line tight and fought through the pain of pure heaviness,” Taylor’s father said. In order to get the fish moving, Taylor grabbed the line with both hands and yanked until she felt the fish was loose off the bottom, then it was back to the rod and reel, which Corey Shenk bought to fit Taylor’s size.“I got her a two-lever reel to give her a second gear and a rod with more bend that could help her out a little,” he said.When Taylor got the red snapper to the surface, her dad quickly scooped it up with a net.“As soon as I saw the fish on the water, I said ‘I think you did it baby!’” Corey Shenk said. “I had tears in my eyes.”“I still don’t believe it really,” Taylor said. “I don’t think it’s real. After I caught it, I was speechless. I didn’t know what to say or do.”Once done fishing, Shenk went straight to New Smyrna Marina and had the snapper weighed on a certified scale — just one of many steps when petitioning the IGFA for a world-record catch.Corey Shenk had to fill out a two-page application, listing details such as witnesses of the catch, witnesses of the weigh-in, signature of the weigh master, a notarized statement from Taylor, 20 feet of fishing line used to make the catch, plus the weight, hook and leader from the rig.“We also had to submit photos of Taylor with the fish, photos of the rod and reel and photos of the scale used to weigh the fish,” Shenk said.The package was mailed to IGFA headquarters in Dania Beach on Thursday. IGFA officials will inspect the materials and data then notify Shenk if it is a world record in about two months.“She earned every bit of it and abided by all the rules to qualify,” Shenk said.The Shenks are not done yet. They have another species on their world-record hit list.“We have the fever,” Shenk said. “Our goal is get the record for red grouper.”